Week Eight: Blog Question

How do emotions affect thinking?
What teaching have you observed that promotes higher order thinking?

Emotion plays an important role in the thinking process. Emotions play a role in long term memory, take precedence during cerebral processing and can impede or assist cognitive learning. When we like a topic, we are focused and interested and question the material. If we don’t like the topic, we spend the least amount of time as possible with the material.
Learning a new topic, students feel neutral. Challenging them with activities and higher-level thinking sparks an interest and therefore positive feelings towards the material. With positive emotion, students broaden their scope of attention and their critical thinking skills are enhanced. Students solve problems for themselves rather than wait for the answer.

In order to promote higher order thinking, we can refer to Bloom’s Taxonomy.


The lowest complexity is remember where students are able to define, label, recall and recognize where material is already learned and all that is required is bringing knowledge up. They don’t need to be able to comprehend it, just know it.
Understand allows students to summarize, discuss, explain, and outline concepts and describes the ability to make sense of the material in some fashion.
Apply is the ability to practice, calculate, apply and execute learned material in new situations.
Analyze is the ability to contrast, distinguish and deduce. The learner can organize and reorganize information into categories and understands the content and structure.
Evaluate allows the learner to appraise, judge, assess and critique the material by using their knowledge. This level usually has more than one answer but students use their knowledge to back up their perspective and are more receptive to other answers as well.
Create is the highest complexity and refers to imagining, composing, designing, and inferring material. It involves the production of creativity, forming new patterns and structures, and using divergent thinking. You refer back to all information, understanding, and application to produce this product.

Teachings that I have observed that promotes higher order thinking includes projects that opens students to do anything they please relating to the field. One project I did my sophomore year was relate Henry VIII’s six wives to the Desperate Housewives. Not only did I need to know background information on Henry VIII and his wives but relate them to tv characters and make connections and show evidence. Not only was it fun, but I put a lot of effort into it because I liked the topic and my teacher allowed me to be creative and not follow a strict structure.